In the news----
Featured in September issue of Citiscapes Magazine, food review. Pick up a copy today and read more about The Tea Room at Vinson Square, L
"When Mary and Dennis Wohlford purchased the former Crumpet Tea Room in downtown Rogers they planned to convert the historic building into office space. But continual requests from residents to bring back the historic tearoom persuaded Mary to renovate the space. Afte a year of remodeling, Mary opened The Tea Room at Vinson Square to the public on April 31st. The restaurant is open for lunch and offers diner a variety of homemade soups, salads, sandwiches and dessert. "I have kept it light, there is nothing fried on the menu." Mary said. Prices for lunch range from $5.50 for a salad sandwich with a side item to $6.25 for a quiche with a choice of soup or salad and a homemade orange roll. Most of the items are made fresh daily using recipes Mary researched and tweked to make her own. The restaurant also offers 40 different varieties of hot tea.
"I've always cooked for my family." Said Mary, who helps prepare the food each morning. "But I've really had to work on the yeast breads. I wasn't as familiar with those." The two-story, 1896-era building seats 120 and has mulitiple rooms with different themes and a variety of historic items and decorative pieces.
The restaurant employs two full time cooks and eight part-time servers."
-Katie Stockstill, Northwest Arkansas Business Journal
May 19, 2008
"When Mary Wohlford bought the historic building in downtown Rogers, she planned to convert the entire upstairs into office space, but people kept asking her about a former business that had operated there for years. As she went in and out of the building people would stop her to ask the same question. others made their way up the narror front stairs to ask, "When will the tea room reopen?"
Although she has some experience in restaurant management, Wohlford wasn't planning to revisit that former career. But people just kept asking. Finally she realized that the building needed a restaurant and she started making plans. The Crumpet Tea room was a popular lunch spot in downtown Rogers for over 30 years, but it closed in 2006 and Wohlford bought the 100- year old Vinson Square building soon after. She and her husband, Dennis, own real estate in Fayetteville, Springfeild and Bella Vista, but are residents of Rogers. She spent a year completely renovating the space, adding a brand new commercial kitchen and redoing all the floors and walls. When they started repairs on the drop ceiling in the downstairs dining room, they discovered the original tongue and groove ceiling underneath, so they decided to uncover that. The process of uncovering the ceiling revealed one original brick wall that was also uncovered. While the renovations were going on, Wohlford started visiting estate sales, auctions, and flea markets to buy china and furniture for the new enterprise. She also visited the storage building that once belonged to her mother. Now when her siblings visit the new restaurant, they're likely to spot items they remember from childhood. Although the tea pot collection, the mismatched china and the floral table cloths resemble the old Crumpet Tea Room, that wasn't Wohlford's goal. She was looking for the classic tea room atmosphere that she's experienced in many other resaturants, she explained. The long central hall that runs from the narror front steps past the small room that house both the kitchen and dining rooms is covered with photographs of downtown Rogers. A few came from the archives of the Rogers Historical Museum, but many more are contemporary photos taken by Wohlford early in the morning when there are few vehicles around.
"It's similar to the old menu, but we have some unique items," she said about the new restaurant, The Tea Room at Vinson square. She develped her own recipe for Orange Rolls, a trademark of the old Crumpet and will also offer quiche and fruit salad with poppy seed dressing. There are 40 kinds of tea available served in a pot or in a single cup. The Tea Room on First Street in downtown Rogers is open for lunch Monday through Saturday.
-Lynn Atkins, Rogers Daily News
May 24th, 2008